The local Associated Press report quotes Scalia as using a Latin phrase [imprimatur] that means “in times of war, the laws fall silent,” to explain why the court erred in that decision and will do so again.

“That’s what was going on — the panic about the war and the invasion of the Pacific and what not,” Scalia said. “That’s what happens. It was wrong, but I would not be surprised to see it happen again, in time of war. It’s no justification but it is the reality.” Source: Washington Examiner

I don’t know anyone connected to those rounded up and held during World War II. I wasn’t around for that, but I’ve thought a lot about it since September 11, 2001. As Americans, we should be able to trust our government, but it doesn’t work that way. We should also be able to trust American citizens and those here legally, but we can’t do that either.

World War II was the first time an American arm had been attacked. While Hawaii was not a state at that time, it was a territory. The attack could have been much worse, but tell that to the families of the lost and wounded. Tell that to the families who would send their men off to a war in the Pacific. It had to be a terribly scary time for that generation. The Japanese had bombed us. What to do? What to do in the heat of a battle? Franklin Roosevelt issued an Executive Order and it was done. It wasn’t fair. Nothing about Pearl Harbor nor internment was fair.

By 1993 we should have begun to realize that government workers aren’t worth their pay checks, at least in some areas, like visas and such.

February 6, 1993 was the first attack on U.S. soil, with Islamists attacking the World Trade towers. Seven people died in that bombing. Then September 11, 2001 was seared into our memory.

The Egyptian Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman, was on the U.S. State Department terrorist watch list. Our Embassy in Sudan gave him a visa anyway. He was here for about 4 moths when we deported him but…guess what…Immigration and Naturalization in Newark, New Jersey gave him a green card – government workers! OMAR ABDEL-RAHMAN had PERMANENT U.S. RESIDENCY. He left the U.S. on a trip, and by that time, we had awakened and decided to deny him entry, but…you know, he had the right to an appeal and so we let him back in, then he didn’t file an appeal. Hey, these jihadists are wiley coyotes. We revoked his green card. He asked for political asylum. We let him stay here while we considered that “asylum.” While twiddling his thumbs awaiting our decision, he directed the first World Trade Towers bombing. Then he planned for his disciples to blow up other New York landmarks in 1995, including the U.N. — yes, HE WAS STILL HERE. He is in prison in North Carolina, not for the 1993 attack, but for the 1995 plans.

Ramzi Yousef…”arrived from Pakistan with an Iraqi passport but no U.S. visa. Claiming political asylum, he was briefly detained for illegal entry, then allowed to enter the United States because the immigration authorities lacked space to hold him. Yousef went on to plot the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, for which he now sits convicted in a” Colorado prison. .

Ramzi Yousef’s uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, didn’t make it to the U.S., but he planned 9/11/0. The rest is an ever-fresh, and restless memory. He was arrested in 2003 and is still in Guantanamo. This month he wrote a “manifesto” and apparently we allowed it to surface:

In his first published words since he was imprisoned, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed seems to think the United States has been destroyed while he was in prison.

He doesn’t say it was his jihad that brought us down. The United States has been destroyed, he believes, by homosexuals and divorce…

With Osama bin Laden’s approval, he arranged the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl; some say he carried it out himself. He was behind the Richard Reid attempted shoe bombing of an airliner, orchestrated the Bali Night Club bombing that killed 200 people, and, of course, masterminded the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Source: ABC

Others here because some government worker wasn’t doing his/her job:

Mir Aimal Kansi – Pakistani, He was a known Islamist. We let him in anyway. He asked for asylum, got a driver’s license, killed two and wounded three outside the CIA headquarters in 1993. He was executed by lethal injection in December 2002.

Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer – Palestinian. Entered illegally from Canada in 1996. Claimed political asylum. Was released on $5,000 bond (posted by another illegal alien). Didn’t show for the hearing. A judge allowed him to leave the country “illegally,” which he ignored, rather, he moved to Brooklyn. Arrested in July 1997 as he was preparing to bomb the Atlantic Avenue subway in Brooklyn. Through all this, he had already been stopped from crossing the border three times. He was eventually convicted of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and other violations. He was sentenced to serve concurrent terms of life imprisonment, plus 30 years. There were also other convictions. I haven’t been able to determine where he or his prayer rug and halal food are located today.

Note that in this case, a weapon of mass destruction was a “pipe bomb.” We couldn’t even find a pipe bomb in Iraq?

On August 3, 1997, Mayor Giuliani criticized the policies which he said allowed Mezer “to roam the U.S.” pending his asylum hearing as “pure administrative gobbledygook.” Giuliani stated that “if someone is accused of being a terrorist, then put them in jail until you determine whether it’s true or not.” Source

Nuradin M. Abdi – Somalia, entered the U.S. twice with a false passport — then we granted him asylum. He plotted to blow up an Ohio Shopping center. The DOJ referred to him as “an Ohio man.” I also cannot find in which American prison, Abdi’s prayer rug resides.

More than anything else, this should be a reminder that our visa, green card and immigration laws should be tough and tight. Had we followed the Rule of Law, 9/11/01 likely would not have happened. Had our states not been so egregiously lax in their laws, 9/11/01 likely would not have happened. Between the 19 attackers, they held 63 driver’s licenses.

According to authorities, all of the hijackers who committed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were foreigners. All of them entered the country legally on a temporary visa, mostly tourist visas with entry permits for six months. Although four of them attended flight school in the United States, only one is known to have entered on an appropriate visa for such study, and one entered on an F-1 student visa. Besides the four pilots, all but one of the terrorists entered the United States only once and had been in the country for only three to five months before the attacks.

The four pilots had been in the United States for extended periods, although none was a legal permanent resident. Some had received more than one temporary visa, most of which were currently valid on September 11, but at least three of them had fallen out of status and were, therefore, in the United States illegally.

Note that “legality” was left in the hands of government workers. Wouldn’t you love to know their names? Their names belong in lights in Time Square for posterity.

The terrorists had obtained U.S. identification that was used for boarding flights in the form of Florida, Virginia, California and New Jersey driver’s licenses/ID cards. One of the terrorists, Mohamed Atta, was detained in Florida for driving without a license, but subsequently obtained one. Thirteen of the terrorists had Florida driver’s licenses or ID cards, seven had Virginia driver’s licenses, at least two had California licenses and two had New Jersey driver’s licenses. According to the March 28, 2002 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Robert Thibadeau, director of Carnegie Mellon’s Internet Security laboratory, says that “the 19 terrorists on Sept. 11 were holding 63 state driver’s licenses for identification.“

As part of our $17 trillion debt, wouldn’t you think we would have invested enough to demand that government workers take care of business and pay strict attention to our borders?

I know, as Scalia says, it’s not right, but it is not my fault or yours that the ideological agenda of some is so terribly egregious. A perfect example is the Boston bombers. Our government could have stopped it, but didn’t. We can’t trust them to do anything in the best interests of the country.

On the other hand, many of us today believe we, those of us who have been characterized as “bitter clingers” by our own President, might be targeted by our government. — those of us who choose to keep our Bibles and our weapons close, because it is the American way from the earliest days of our founding. We’ve already been targeted through ObamaCare laws and the IRS. What’s next? An internment camp? Maybe that’s Scalia’s message.

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In the cold light of 72 years since WW II began the internment seems cruel and unnecessary. But a copule of simple points will shed some light: 1. On Dec 8th 1941 we just lost most of our navy. 2. There was a serious possibility in 1941 that we could actually lose WW II. 3. There was actual Japanese sponsered sabotage on the West coast with probably aid from U.S. citizens of Japanese origin. Efforts to get Japanese immigrants to assist un in uncovering a spy network was met with suspicion and stonewalling.
The actual internment was a sad but reasonably humane effort to eliminate the fear of attack from within. Keep in minf that everyone in internment camps had it 100 times better then those Americans who went to war and many of them had no choice in that decision either. So not only “could” internment happen again it “must” if we hope to win the next war. For reasons no one can justify we have choosen to “import” people who don’t like us, don’t want to assimilate and still show alliegience to their home country. Do we realy want them in our country, free to do whatever they want if we are in a war with their “homeland”?

Carl Middleton

I’m in total agreement with “GoneWithTheWind” on this one. Obama used his pen to allow 800,000 Muslims into the U.S. each year. Why, if not to change America into a Muslim country.

http://conservativehideout.com Matt Ross (@MrEvilMatt)

It isn’t likely to be Muslims interred next time, but Christians, or anyone else that opposes the government.

Neil Dunn

Dear Maggie, I also never heard about the Japanese internment until 20+ years ago. I bought an Ansel Adams photography book on this topic which shows the beautiful mountains, the pristine camp buildings, and the imprisoned Japanese families neatly posing for their “family portrait” worthy of being mounted on a living room wall. It is an important book chronicling a disgusting low point in our history. Still, without secure borders, the US will not survive as was intended when founded. Keep up the great work, as you are my favorite and the most persistent, investigative reporter/journalist I am aware of.

http://maggiesnotebook.com Maggie

Neil Dunn, first my apologies for taking a couple of days to get here to respond to your very, very kind comment. As I often say, bloggers are nothing without readers, so thank you so much for reading and commenting.

This whole issue of internment camps is, indeed, a quandary and I was surprised that Scalia spoke publicly about it. In today’s situation, it is really something to think about because it will happen again. I believe more people died in 9/11/01 than died at Pearl Harbor. It is daunting to think about. Again, thank you!

pete

wasn’t there the first time – and i never read Malkin’s book about the case for internment – but i have seen video of Alex Jones screaming, “you’re a monster” at Malkin for publishing it.